1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus or the like, for example, for outputting information of a product or the like to a display or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, a conventional information processing apparatus is disclosed in which a retrieval and selection screen display means displays first and second graphic sections, a character retrieval section, a selection candidate list section, an accessory list section, and a tree view section on a single screen, and images of products are displayed in the first graphic section based on the product information stored in a storage means. If a product is selected in this section or in any of the above-described sections, the selected product and the accessories of that product are also simultaneously displayed in a highlighted manner on this screen. Furthermore, these sections are linked to each other such that they change information displayed on screens in conjunction with one another. Accordingly, if a product is selected on any of the sections, the information related to the selected product is automatically displayed on the other sections (for example, see JP 2003-141166A (page 1, FIG. 1, etc.)
However, when one or more pieces of information, including, for example, the above-described information of accessories or the like, or one or more pieces of hierarchized information or the like are included for one item such as a product, it was difficult for conventional information processing apparatuses to appropriately display those pieces of information in a manner in which the correlation between the information and the item such as a product can be recognized.
For example, in a case where one product and information relating to that product, such as its accessories, are displayed in different areas of one screen, as in JP 2003-141166A, if the number of different areas increases, then only information relating to one product can be displayed on one screen. When the distance between the section in which the product is displayed and the section in which the accessories are displayed is large, then one has to move the line of sight greatly, making it difficult to recognize the correlation between the product and the accessories. Furthermore, when multiple products and information or the like relating to the accessories or the like of those products are displayed on one screen, it is difficult to judge which product is related to which accessory or the like at one glance.
Similarly, with conventional file systems and the like that manages hierarchized information, it was difficult to display, for example, the correlation between a file and the information about that file, or the correlation between a so-called folder or directory and a file contained therein, in an easily understandable manner.
Furthermore, when correlated pieces of information are displayed together by conventional information processing apparatuses, it was not possible to easily modify the correlation between them and display such modification. For example, it was difficult to dynamically change correlated pieces of information.
As described above, the conventional techniques have the problem that the correlation between pieces of information cannot be displayed in a clearly understandable manner.